Footwear brand Crocs has launched a takeback programme in Singapore, marking the first rollout of the initiative in Southeast Asia.
The “Old Crocs, new life” programme launched on 22 April — which was Earth Day — and is now in place across all 17 retail stores in the city-state. It emerges soon after a coalition launched in Singapore to accelerate the reuse economy amid high waste volumes and low recycling rates.
Crocs’ circularity scheme was first introduced globally in 2023 as part of the United States-headquartered company’s efforts to expand product reuse and recycling, and is now live in five European markets, the US, and Canada. The programme has also started in South Korea.
Is Crocs incentivising consumption by offering discounts on returned used shoes? [click to enlarge] Image: metropolitant.com
Customers can return any pair of Crocs footwear, regardless of condition, size or style, and get a 15 per cent discount on future purchases.
Returned items are sorted based on usability. Shoes that are still in decent condition are donated through Soles4Souls, an international non-profit organisation that has partnered with Crocs since 2016 to distribute footwear to underserved communities.
Items that are no longer suitable for use are processed and recycled into material for new products in partnership with local upcycling company Semula.
Industry-watchers have said that while such initiatives drive reuse and recycling, they may also only drive further consumption, because of the discounts offered to consumers to buy new products.
Cros does not disclose data on the total pairs collected, weight of material recovered, or cumulative volumes since the launch of its takeback programmes since launch in its latest sustainability report.
Crocs are made from a number of different forms of plastic including the proprietary material Croslite, which is primarily polyethylene vinyl acetate — the material used to make shower curtains, table covers, and food packaging. The Croslite is injected with gas to give the shoes their spring.
As Croslite is a closed-cell resin, Crocs are particularly hard to recycle and are non-biodegradable. However, the company claims the shoes collected through its programme can be repurposed into new products.
One example is the Keep It Going Classic Clog, which contains 25 per cent post-consumer recycled content derived from collected footwear. The model was displayed in Singapore as part of the launch but is not available for sale locally.
As part of its sustainability targets, Crocs is aiming for 50 per cent of its Croslite to be made from non-fossil fuels derived material by 2030 and cut the carbon footprint of its classic model by 50 per cent by end-decade.
Jonathan Tostevin, a member of the Singapore Reuse Coalition, said the programme was a “positive step”, noting that incentives can help drive returns — but raised concerns over transparency around the returned shoes.
“Donation can simply delay waste, and without clear data on return rates, reuse and material recovery, it’s difficult to assess the real impact,” said Tostevin, who is chief executive of container return scheme Muuse.
He noted that brands like outdoor gear company Patagonia also use incentives to reward takeback, but back it up with major investment in repair and resale to keep products in use.
“For Crocs, the key issue is how they deal with a material that is difficult to recycle, whether that is through better end-of-life solutions or changes to the product itself to make it more circular.”
The company has a responsibility to clearly show how its products are kept out of landfill, he said.
Crocs has not responded to queries about the volume of shoes it has collected since launching its global returns scheme or the impact on material consumption and waste that discounting purchases may have had.
Founded in 2002 in Boulder, Colarado, more than 100 million Crocs are sold worldwide annually. Asia Pacific is one of its fastest-growing regions, with 30-65 per cent growth seen in recent years, with particularly strong demand from China, its second largest market after the US.
Crocs pushed back its net-zero target from 2030 to 2040 after recording a 45.5 per cent increase in emissions year-on-year in 2023.
